Politics & Government
Water Tower Should Save Farmington Hills $3.5 Million a Year
The new water tower should be on line by June 1. Public works officials expect it to pay for itself within six years.
Cha-ching.
That’s the sound of about $3.5 million a year in savings Farmington Hills is expecting a year after its $5 million, 209-foot-tall water tower goes on line, The Oakland Press reports.
Farmington Hills hope to have the tower operational by June 1. It cost $5 million to build, around $17 million implement and will hold 3 million gallons of water. It’s the largest elevated water storage structure in Michigan.
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Farmington Hills is a wholesale customer of Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and can’t control the “the rate way pay them is based on some things we can control and some we can’t,” Karen Mondora, assistant public works director said.
“One thing we can control is the peak usage volume. The plan is to fill the tower overnight when the peak is low for use during maximum peak times to cut back on using water that comes to us from Detroit.”
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She expects the tower to pay for itself in around six years with the savings in water use.
Farmington Hills is the latest in a string of Oakland County communities putting their own water towers in place because of uncertainty about rates given the financial situation of the city of Detroit. Orion Township, Novi, Waterford and Ferndale are among the communities that have built their own towers, and Oakland County is proposing that $500,00o be spent to examine alternatives to receiving water from Detroit after the city halted talks to form a regional water authority through the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
